While we have been reading a lot that Karan Johar and his production house Dharma Productions is all set to give a platform to the star kids like Jhanvi Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, Ananya Pandey and Ishaan Khattar soon, he is trying his best to play safe and keep himself away from nepotism controversies this time.

Karan Johar can be called the man who made the word ‘nepotism’ popular lately, after his infamous episode featuring Kangana Ranaut on his chat show Koffee With Karan Season 5. There were a series of reactions that followed around the controversy and for Karan Johar and it seems the entire thing affected him so much that now he has become a little hesitant to make any announcement about launching new faces under his banner – Dharma Productions. And while we have been reading a lot that Karan is all set to give a platform to the star kids like Jhanvi Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and Ishaan Khattar soon, he is trying his best to play safe and keep himself away from controversies this time.

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His recent interview with DNA shows how Karan refuses to confirm the rumours of launching Jhanvi Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, Ishaan Khattar or Ananya Pandey. In the interview Karan spoke at length about triggering nepotism again.

When the ace director was asked whether him launching these star kids was true, and that he was taking the topic of nepotism to the next level, he replied, “I think much has been said and debated about that word. One person talks about it, everybody discusses it and it becomes a national issue. I don’t think nepotism is one thing we should discuss because it has existed in so many industries since time immemorial. Can we say once and for all, RIP nepotism and move on from that?”

Though the director assured that he is ‘not conscious at all’ with the debate around this term, he did sounded so. Karan said, “I am not conscious at all. I look for talent for the movies I do. I am not confirming all the rumours of launching Jhanvi, Sara or Ishaan. But there will be three or four new faces that Dharma will launch by the end of this year, and they will be in pivotal roles and films.”

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Karan further added, “We have screen tested people from all walks of life, and if some of them happen to be from the film fraternity, I am not going to be apologetic.” Karan cleared that, “What is the harm if a friend’s daughter or sibling or child is talented and cast for a part? I had nothing to do with Mr Mahesh Bhatt before I chose to launch Alia. David Dhawan and his wife Laali are family friends but Varun went through the grind of being an assistant director for five years before I thought that he was good enough. Sidharth Malhotra was not from the industry and I never get credit for that. Or the 15 directors, who are not from the film industry that I worked with.”

Well, Karan seems to have kept his answers ready this time and though we await to see these new faces in the industry soon, we are also eager to know who is giving a platform to these much-in-talk star kids, soon.